Qos guarantee method and gateway

ABSTRACT

The present disclosure relates to a QoS guarantee method. In one example method, a control plane gateway obtains a QoS parameter. The QoS parameter comprises an allocation/retention priority (ARP) and a QoS class identifier (QCI). The control plane gateway maps the QoS parameter to QoS guarantee information. The QoS guarantee information comprises a differentiated services code point (DSCP) parameter. The control plane gateway sends the QoS guarantee information to a user plane gateway. The QoS guarantee information is to be used by the user plane gateway for QoS marking.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.15/991,935, filed on May 29, 2018, which is a continuation ofInternational Application No. PCT/CN2015/097700, filed on Dec. 17, 2015.All of the aforementioned patent applications are hereby incorporated byreference in their entireties.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present disclosure relates to the field of communicationstechnologies, and in particular, to a quality of service QoS guaranteemethod and a gateway.

BACKGROUND

In an evolved packet core (EPC), a service flow may be aggregated into abearer, and the bearer is aggregated into a packet data network (PDN)connection (that is, a session) to provide QoS guarantee.

In an existing EPC, a data forwarding layer and a data control layer areseparated by using an Open Flow protocol, and packet forwarding isimplemented by using an Open Flow technology. However, a problem is thatin the prior art, only a packet on an Internet Protocol (IP) layer canbe processed, and packet forwarding is implemented according to aprocessing result, and corresponding quality of service (QoS) guaranteecannot be provided for user equipment.

SUMMARY

Embodiments of the present disclosure provide a QoS guarantee method anda gateway, so as to provide corresponding QoS guarantee for userequipment.

According to a first aspect of the embodiments of the presentdisclosure, a quality of service QoS guarantee method is provided, wherethe method is applied to an evolved packet core EPC, the EPC includes acontrol plane gateway and at least two user plane gateways, and themethod includes:

-   -   obtaining, by the control plane gateway, a quality of service        QoS parameter;

mapping, by the control plane gateway, the QoS parameter to QoSguarantee information, where a mapping relationship between the QoSparameter and the QoS guarantee information is configured on the controlplane gateway; and

sending, by the control plane gateway, the QoS guarantee information tothe user plane gateway, to instruct the user plane gateway to provideQoS guarantee for the user equipment according to the QoS guaranteeinformation.

In this solution, the control plane gateway may obtain the QoSparameter, and map the QoS parameter to the QoS guarantee informationthat is required by the user plane gateway to provide the QoS guaranteefor the user equipment; and then may instruct, by interacting with theuser plane gateway, the user plane gateway to provide the QoS guaranteefor the user equipment according to the QoS guarantee information. Thatis, corresponding QoS guarantee may be provided for the user equipmentby using this solution.

In addition, in this solution, the EPC includes a control plane gatewayand at least two user plane gateways. Therefore, when the mappingrelationship between the QoS parameter and the QoS guarantee informationchanges, only a mapping relationship configured on one control planegateway needs to be updated. This simplifies an updating process.

With reference to the first aspect, in a first possible implementation,the QoS guarantee includes bandwidth guarantee, and the bandwidthguarantee includes session-level bandwidth guarantee, bearer-levelbandwidth guarantee, and service-flow-level bandwidth guarantee.

With reference to the first possible implementation, in a secondpossible implementation, the QoS guarantee information includes abandwidth guarantee parameter;

the bandwidth guarantee parameter includes a traffic policing parameteror a traffic shaping parameter, the traffic policing parameter is usedto perform traffic policing on a rate of user traffic entering anetwork, and the traffic shaping parameter is used to perform trafficshaping on a rate of user traffic flowing out of the network;

the traffic policing parameter includes a committed information rateCIR, a committed burst size CBS, a peak information rate PIR, and a peakburst size PBS; and

the traffic shaping parameter includes a rate and a queue depth, therate is a preset maximum allowed rate of packet transmission, and thequeue depth is used to represent a maximum quantity of packets that canbe buffered by each user equipment.

With reference to the second possible implementation, in a thirdpossible implementation, the QoS parameter includes: a maximum bit rateMBR or a guaranteed bit rate GBR, and a per APN aggregate maximum bitrate APN-AMBR; and

the mapping, by the control plane gateway, the QoS parameter to QoSguarantee information includes:

mapping, by the control plane gateway, the GBR to the CIR and the CBS,and mapping the APN-AMBR to the PIR and the PBS; or

mapping, by the control plane gateway, the MBR to the rate and the queuedepth.

In this solution, the QoS guarantee provided by the user plane gatewayfor the user equipment may be specifically the bandwidth guarantee. Thatis, the user plane gateway may provide bandwidth guarantee for the userequipment, to avoid impact of network congestion on data transmission ofthe user equipment, so as to ensure normal data transmission of the userequipment.

With reference to the second possible implementation or the thirdpossible implementation, in a fourth possible implementation, thebandwidth guarantee parameter further includes first featureinformation; and

the first feature information includes a feature of a packet on whichthe bandwidth guarantee is to be performed, and is used to instruct theuser plane gateway to perform the bandwidth guarantee on a packetincluding the feature.

With reference to the fourth possible implementation, in a fifthpossible implementation,

the first feature information includes an Internet Protocol IP addressof the user equipment, and is used to instruct the user plane gateway toperform the bandwidth guarantee on a packet including the IP address ofthe user equipment; or

the first feature information includes the IP address of the userequipment and a tunnel endpoint identifier TEID, and is used to instructthe user plane gateway to perform the bandwidth guarantee on a packetincluding the IP address of the user equipment and the TEID; or

the first feature information includes the IP address of the userequipment and a traffic flow template TFT, and is used to instruct theuser plane gateway to perform the bandwidth guarantee on a packetincluding the IP address of the user equipment and the TFT; or

the first feature information includes the TEID, and is used to instructthe user plane gateway to perform the bandwidth guarantee on a packetincluding the TEID; or

the first feature information includes an IP 5-tuple, and is used toinstruct the user plane gateway to perform the bandwidth guarantee on apacket including the IP 5-tuple.

In this solution, the first feature information includes the feature ofthe packet on which the bandwidth guarantee is to be performed, so as toinstruct the user plane gateway to pertinently perform the bandwidthguarantee on a specific packet (a packet carrying the feature includedin the first feature information). This can effectively limit a range onwhich the bandwidth guarantee is to be performed.

With reference to the fourth possible implementation or the fifthpossible implementation, in a sixth possible implementation,

the first feature information is further used to instruct the user planegateway to perform the session-level bandwidth guarantee, thebearer-level bandwidth guarantee, or the service-flow-level bandwidthguarantee, and

when including the IP address of the user equipment, the first featureinformation is used to instruct the user plane gateway to perform thesession-level bandwidth guarantee on the packet including the IP addressof the user equipment; or

when including the IP address of the user equipment and the TEID, thefirst feature information is used to instruct the user plane gateway toperform the session-level bandwidth guarantee on the packet includingthe IP address of the user equipment and the TEID; or

when including the IP address of the user equipment and the TFT, thefirst feature information is used to instruct the user plane gateway toperform the session-level bandwidth guarantee on the packet includingthe IP address of the user equipment and the TFT; or

when including the TEID, the first feature information is used toinstruct the user plane gateway to perform the bearer-level bandwidthguarantee on the packet including the TEID; or

when including the IP 5-tuple, the first feature information is used toinstruct the user plane gateway to perform the service-flow-levelbandwidth guarantee on the packet including the IP 5-tuple.

In this solution, in addition to including the feature of the packet onwhich the bandwidth guarantee is to be performed, the first featureinformation is used to indicate a level of bandwidth guarantee to beperformed by the user plane gateway (that is, specific guarantee to beperformed: the session-level bandwidth guarantee, the bearer-levelbandwidth guarantee, or the service-flow-level bandwidth guarantee). Inthis way, the user plane gateway may be instructed to pertinentlyperform bandwidth guarantee at a particular level (for example, thesession-level bandwidth guarantee, the bearer-level bandwidth guarantee,or the service-flow-level bandwidth guarantee) on a specific packet (apacket that carries the feature included in the first featureinformation). The bandwidth guarantee is classified into thesession-level bandwidth guarantee, the bearer-level bandwidth guarantee,and the service-flow-level bandwidth guarantee according to a serviceflow granularity. Therefore, this solution may not only effectivelylimit a range on which the bandwidth guarantee is to be performed, butmay also specifically limit a granularity based on which the bandwidthguarantee is to be performed.

With reference to the first aspect, in a seventh possibleimplementation, the QoS guarantee includes QoS re-marking, and the QoSre-marking includes bearer-level QoS re-marking and service-flow-levelQoS re-marking.

With reference to the seventh possible implementation, in an eighthpossible implementation, the QoS guarantee information includes adifferentiated services code point DSCP parameter, and the QoS parameterincludes an allocation/retention priority ARP and a QoS class identifierQCI.

With reference to the seventh possible implementation or the eighthpossible implementation, in a ninth possible implementation,

the QoS guarantee information further includes second featureinformation; where

the second feature information includes a feature of a packet on whichthe QoS re-marking is to be performed, and is used to instruct the userplane gateway to perform the QoS re-marking on a packet including thefeature.

With reference to the ninth possible implementation, in a tenth possibleimplementation,

the second feature information includes a TEID, and is used to instructthe user plane gateway to perform the QoS re-marking on a packetincluding the TEID; or

the second feature information includes an IP 5-tuple, and is used toinstruct the user plane gateway to perform the QoS re-marking on apacket including the IP 5-tuple.

In this solution, the second feature information includes the feature ofthe packet on which the QoS re-marking is to be performed, so as toinstruct the user plane gateway to pertinently perform the QoSre-marking on a specific packet (a packet carrying the feature includedin the second feature information). This can effectively limit a rangeon which the QoS re-marking is performed.

With reference to the ninth possible implementation or the tenthpossible implementation, in an eleventh possible implementation,

the second feature information is further used to indicate thatto-be-performed QoS re-marking is the bearer-level QoS re-marking or theservice-flow-level QoS re-marking; and

when including the TEID, the second feature information is used toinstruct the user plane gateway to perform the bearer-level QoSre-marking on the packet including the TEID; or

when including the IP 5-tuple, the second feature information is used toinstruct the user plane gateway to perform the service-flow-level QoSre-marking on the packet including the IP 5-tuple.

In this solution, in addition to including the feature of the packet onwhich the QoS re-marking is to be performed, the second featureinformation is used to indicate a level of QoS re-marking to beperformed by the user plane gateway (that is, specific guarantee to beperformed: the bearer-level QoS re-marking or the service-flow-level QoSre-marking). In this way, the user plane gateway may be instructed topertinently perform QoS re-marking at a particular level (for example,the bearer-level QoS re-marking or the service-flow-level QoSre-marking) on a specific packet (a packet that carries the featureincluded in the second feature information). The QoS re-marking isclassified into the bearer-level QoS re-marking or theservice-flow-level QoS re-marking according to a service flowgranularity. Therefore, this solution may not only effectively limit arange on which the QoS re-marking is to be performed, but may alsospecifically limit a granularity based on which the QoS re-marking is tobe performed.

With reference to the first aspect, in a twelfth possibleimplementation, the QoS guarantee further includes bearer-level tunnelmarking.

With reference to the twelfth possible implementation, in a thirteenthpossible implementation, the second feature information includes a TEID,and is used to instruct the user plane gateway to perform thebearer-level tunnel marking on a packet including the TEID.

With reference to any one of the first aspect, or the foregoing possibleimplementations of the first aspect, in a fourteenth possibleimplementation, the obtaining, by the control plane gateway, a qualityof service QoS parameter includes:

obtaining, by the control plane gateway, the QoS parameter according toaccess information and subscription information of the user equipment;

or

performing, by the control gateway, deep packet inspection DPI on apacket of the user equipment to obtain the QoS parameter.

With reference to any one of the first aspect, or the foregoing possibleimplementations of the first aspect, in a fifteenth possibleimplementation, before the sending, by the control plane gateway, theQoS guarantee information to the user plane gateway, to instruct theuser plane gateway to provide QoS guarantee for the user equipmentaccording to the QoS guarantee information, the method further includes:

sending, by the control plane gateway, an object creation requestmessage to the user plane gateway, where the object creation requestmessage carries a user service context when the user equipment accessesthe EPC, and the user service context includes a session context, abearer context, and a service flow context, to instruct the user planegateway to create at least one of a session object, a bearer object, ora service flow object for the user equipment according to the userservice context; where

one session context is associated with one or more bearer contexts, orone session context is associated with one or more service flowcontexts; and one bearer context is associated with one or more serviceflow contexts.

Providing the QoS guarantee for the user equipment by instructing theuser plane gateway to create a corresponding object is a specificimplementation of providing the QoS guarantee for the user equipment.The control plane gateway may instruct, as required and based on aspecific application and scenario, the user plane gateway to configure acorresponding object. This may improve programmability and scalabilityof the user plane gateway. In addition, after the object isinstantiated, the object configured on the user plane gateway mayreceive, according to control performed by the control plane gateway onthe object, a specific packet belonging to the object, and processes thereceived packet according to action orchestration of the control planegateway.

With reference to any one of the first aspect, or the foregoing possibleimplementations of the first aspect, in a sixteenth possibleimplementation, the method further includes:

after the mapping relationship between the QoS parameter and the QoSguarantee information changes, updating, by the control plane gateway,the mapping relationship.

In this solution, the EPC includes a control plane gateway and at leasttwo user plane gateways. Therefore, when the mapping relationshipbetween the QoS parameter and the QoS guarantee information changes,only a mapping relationship configured on one control plane gatewayneeds to be updated. This simplifies an updating process.

With reference to the sixteenth possible implementation, in aseventeenth possible implementation, after the updating, by the controlplane gateway, the mapping relationship, the method further includes:

mapping, by the control plane gateway, the QoS parameter to updated QoSguarantee information by using an updated mapping relationship; and

sending, by the control plane gateway, the updated QoS guaranteeinformation to the user plane gateway, to instruct the user planegateway to provide QoS guarantee for the user equipment according to theupdated QoS guarantee information.

With reference to any one of the first aspect, or the foregoing possibleimplementations of the first aspect, in an eighteenth possibleimplementation, after the sending, by the control plane gateway, the QoSguarantee information to the user plane gateway, the method furtherincludes:

sending, by the control plane gateway, a QoS guarantee terminationmessage to the user plane gateway, where the QoS guarantee terminationmessage is used to instruct the user plane gateway to terminateproviding the QoS guarantee for the user equipment.

According to a second aspect of the embodiments of the presentdisclosure, a control plane gateway is provided, where the control planegateway is included in an evolved packet core EPC, the EPC furtherincludes at least two user plane gateways, and the control plane gatewayincludes:

an obtaining unit, configured to obtain a quality of service QoSparameter;

a mapping unit, configured to map the QoS parameter obtained by theobtaining unit to QoS guarantee information, where a mappingrelationship between the QoS parameter and the QoS guarantee informationis configured on the control plane gateway; and

a sending unit, configured to send the QoS guarantee information to theuser plane gateway, to instruct the user plane gateway to provide QoSguarantee for the user equipment according to the QoS guaranteeinformation.

With reference to the second aspect, in a first possible implementation,the QoS guarantee includes bandwidth guarantee, and the bandwidthguarantee includes session-level bandwidth guarantee, bearer-levelbandwidth guarantee, and service-flow-level bandwidth guarantee.

With reference to the first possible implementation, in a secondpossible implementation, the QoS guarantee information includes abandwidth guarantee parameter;

the bandwidth guarantee parameter includes a traffic policing parameteror a traffic shaping parameter, the traffic policing parameter is usedto perform traffic policing on a rate of user traffic entering anetwork, and the traffic shaping parameter is used to perform trafficshaping on a rate of user traffic flowing out of the network;

the traffic policing parameter includes a committed information rateCIR, a committed burst size CBS, a peak information rate PIR, and a peakburst size PBS; and

the traffic shaping parameter includes a rate and a queue depth, therate is a preset maximum allowed rate of packet transmission, and thequeue depth is used to represent a maximum quantity of packets that canbe buffered by each user equipment.

With reference to the second possible implementation, in a thirdpossible implementation, the QoS parameter includes: a maximum bit rateMBR or a guaranteed bit rate GBR, and a per APN aggregate maximum bitrate APN-AMBR; and

the mapping unit is specifically configured to:

map the GBR to the CIR and the CBS, and map the APN-AMBR to the PIR andthe PBS; or

map the MBR to the rate and the queue depth.

With reference to the second possible implementation or the thirdpossible implementation, in a fourth possible implementation, thebandwidth guarantee parameter further includes first featureinformation; and

the first feature information includes a feature of a packet on whichthe bandwidth guarantee is to be performed, and is used to instruct theuser plane gateway to perform the bandwidth guarantee on a packetincluding the feature.

With reference to the fourth possible implementation, for detaileddescription about the first feature information in a fifth possibleimplementation, refer to related description in the fifth possibleimplementation of the first aspect of the embodiments of the presentdisclosure, and details are not described again in this embodiment.

With reference to the fourth possible implementation or the fifthpossible implementation, in a sixth possible implementation, the firstfeature information is further used to instruct the user plane gatewayto perform the session-level bandwidth guarantee, the bearer-levelbandwidth guarantee, or the service-flow-level bandwidth guarantee.

It should be noted that, for a specific method in which the firstfeature information is used to instruct the user plane gateway toperform the session-level bandwidth guarantee, the bearer-levelbandwidth guarantee, or the service-flow-level bandwidth guarantee,refer to related description in the sixth possible implementation of thefirst aspect of the embodiments of the present disclosure, and detailsare not described again in this embodiment.

With reference to the second aspect, in a seventh possibleimplementation, the QoS guarantee includes QoS re-marking, and the QoSre-marking includes bearer-level QoS re-marking and service-flow-levelQoS re-marking.

With reference to the seventh possible implementation, in an eighthpossible implementation, the QoS guarantee information includes adifferentiated services code point DSCP parameter, and the QoS parameterincludes an allocation/retention priority ARP and a QoS class identifierQCI.

With reference to the seventh possible implementation or the eighthpossible implementation, in a ninth possible implementation, the QoSguarantee information further includes second feature information; where

the second feature information includes a feature of a packet on whichthe QoS re-marking is to be performed, and is used to instruct the userplane gateway to perform the QoS re-marking on a packet including thefeature.

With reference to the ninth possible implementation, for detaileddescription about the second feature information in a tenth possibleimplementation, refer to related description in the tenth possibleimplementation of the first aspect of the embodiments of the presentdisclosure, and details are not described again in this embodiment.

With reference to the ninth possible implementation or the tenthpossible implementation, in an eleventh possible implementation, thesecond feature information is further used to indicate thatto-be-performed QoS re-marking is the bearer-level QoS re-marking or theservice-flow-level QoS re-marking.

It should be noted that, for a specific method in which the firstfeature information is used to indicate that the to-be-performed QoSre-marking is the bearer-level QoS re-marking or the service-flow-levelQoS re-marking, refer to related description in the eleventh possibleimplementation of the first aspect of the embodiments of the presentdisclosure, and details are not described again in this embodiment.

With reference to the second aspect, in a twelfth possibleimplementation, the QoS guarantee further includes bearer-level tunnelmarking.

When the QoS guarantee is the bearer-level tunnel marking, the secondfeature information includes a TEID, and is used to instruct the userplane gateway to perform the bearer-level tunnel marking on a packetincluding the TEID.

With reference to any one of the second aspect, or the foregoingpossible implementations of the second aspect, in a thirteenth possibleimplementation, the obtaining unit is specifically configured to:

obtain the QoS parameter according to access information andsubscription information of the user equipment;

or

perform deep packet inspection DPI on a packet of the user equipment toobtain the QoS parameter.

With reference to any one of the second aspect, or the foregoingpossible implementations of the second aspect, in a fourteenth possibleimplementation, the sending unit is further configured to: beforesending the QoS guarantee information to the user plane gateway, toinstruct the user plane gateway to provide the QoS guarantee for theuser equipment according to the QoS guarantee information, send anobject creation request message to the user plane gateway, where theobject creation request message carries a user service context when theuser equipment accesses the EPC, and the user service context includes asession context, a bearer context, and a service flow context, toinstruct the user plane gateway to create at least one of a sessionobject, a bearer object, or a service flow object for the user equipmentaccording to the user service context; where

one session context is associated with one or more bearer contexts, orone session context is associated with one or more service flowcontexts; and one bearer context is associated with one or more serviceflow contexts.

With reference to any one of the second aspect, or the foregoingpossible implementations of the second aspect, in a fifteenth possibleimplementation, the control plane gateway further includes:

an updating unit, configured to: after a mapping relationship between aQoS parameter and the QoS guarantee information changes, update themapping relationship.

With reference to the fifteenth possible implementation, in a sixteenthpossible implementation, the mapping unit is further configured to mapthe QoS parameter to updated QoS guarantee information by using amapping relationship updated by the updating unit; and

the sending unit is further configured to send the QoS guaranteeinformation updated by the updating unit to the user plane gateway, toinstruct the user plane gateway to provide QoS guarantee for the userequipment according to the updated QoS guarantee information.

With reference to any one of the second aspect, or the foregoingpossible implementations of the second aspect, in a seventeenth possibleimplementation, the sending unit is further configured to: after sendingthe QoS guarantee information to the user plane gateway, send a QoSguarantee termination message to the user plane gateway, where the QoSguarantee termination message is used to instruct the user plane gatewayto terminate providing the QoS guarantee for the user equipment.

According to a third aspect of the embodiments of the presentdisclosure, a control plane gateway is provided, including a processor,a memory, a system bus, and a communications interface, where

the memory is configured to store a computer executable instruction; theprocessor is connected to the memory by using the system bus, and whenthe control plane gateway runs, the processor executes the computerexecutable instruction stored in the memory, so that the control planegateway performs the QoS guarantee method according to any one of thefirst aspect or the foregoing possible implementations of the firstaspect of the present disclosure.

According to a fourth aspect of the embodiments of the presentdisclosure, a readable medium is provided, where the readable mediumincludes a computer executable instruction, and when a processor of acontrol plane gateway executes the computer executable instruction, thecontrol plane gateway performs the QoS guarantee method according to anyone of the first aspect or the foregoing possible implementations of thefirst aspect of the embodiments of the present disclosure.

It should be noted that, for a technical effect of the control planegateway provided in the second aspect or the third aspect of theembodiments of the present disclosure, reference may be made to atechnical effect of the QoS guarantee method according to any one of thefirst aspect or the foregoing possible implementations of the firstaspect of the embodiments of the present disclosure, and details are notdescribed herein again.

According to a fifth aspect of the embodiments of the presentdisclosure, a quality of service QoS guarantee method is provided, wherethe method is applied to an evolved packet core EPC, the EPC includes acontrol plane gateway and at least two user plane gateways, and themethod includes:

receiving, by the user plane gateway, QoS guarantee information sent bythe control plane gateway; and

providing, by the user plane gateway, QoS guarantee for the userequipment according to the QoS guarantee information.

In this solution, the user plane gateway may provide the QoS guaranteefor the user equipment according to the QoS guarantee information sentby the control plane gateway. That is, corresponding QoS guarantee maybe provided for the user equipment by using this solution.

In addition, in this solution, the EPC includes a control plane gatewayand at least two user plane gateways. Therefore, when the mappingrelationship between the QoS parameter and the QoS guarantee informationchanges, only a mapping relationship configured on one control planegateway needs to be updated. This simplifies an updating process.

With reference to the fifth aspect, in a first possible implementation,the QoS guarantee includes bandwidth guarantee, and the bandwidthguarantee includes session-level bandwidth guarantee, bearer-levelbandwidth guarantee, and service-flow-level bandwidth guarantee, or

the QoS guarantee includes QoS re-marking, and the QoS re-markingincludes bearer-level QoS re-marking and service-flow-level QoSre-marking; or

the QoS guarantee includes bearer-level tunnel marking.

It should be noted that, for detailed description about the QoSguarantee information in the fifth aspect and a possible implementationof the fifth aspect of the embodiments of the present disclosure,reference may be made to related description in the first aspect or thefirst possible implementation of the first aspect, and details are notdescribed herein again.

When the QoS guarantee is the QoS re-marking, the QoS guaranteeinformation is a DSCP parameter; and the providing, by the user planegateway, QoS guarantee for the user equipment according to the QoSguarantee information specifically includes: when forwarding, by theuser plane gateway, uplink data or downlink data forwarding, modifying aDSCP field of an IP packet to a DSCP parameter.

When the QoS guarantee is the bearer-level tunnel marking, theproviding, by the user plane gateway. QoS guarantee for the userequipment according to the QoS guarantee information specificallyincludes:

when an uplink packet leaves a general packet radio service GPRStunneling protocol GTP tunnel, decapsulating, by the user plane gateway,the uplink packet to extract an outer-layer packet DSCP of the uplinkpacket, and writes the outer-layer packet DSCP of the uplink packet intoa packet header of an inner-layer packet of the uplink packet;

when the uplink packet enters a tunnel on a packet data network PDNside, extracting an inner-layer packet DSCP of the uplink packet, andwriting the inner-layer packet DSCP of the uplink packet into a packetheader of an outer-layer packet of the uplink packet;

when a downlink packet leaves the tunnel on the PDN side, decapsulatingthe downlink packet to extract an outer-layer packet DSCP of thedownlink packet, and writes the outer-layer packet DSCP of the downlinkpacket into a packet header of an inner-layer packet of the downlinkpacket; and

when the downlink packet enters the GTP tunnel, extracting aninner-layer packet DSCP of the downlink packet, and writing theinner-layer packet DSCP of the downlink packet into a packet header ofthe outer-layer packet of the downlink packet.

According to a sixth aspect of the embodiments of the presentdisclosure, a user plane gateway is provided, where the user planegateway is included in an evolved packet core EPC, and the EPC furtherincludes at least two user plane gateways; and the user plane gatewayincludes function modules configured to perform the QoS guarantee methodaccording to various possible implementations of the fifth aspect andthe fifth aspect, and these function modules are obtained, by logicallydividing the user plane gateway, to perform the QoS guarantee methodaccording to the foregoing possible implementations of the fifth aspectand the fifth aspect.

According to a seventh aspect of the embodiments of the presentdisclosure, a user plane gateway is provided, including a processor, amemory, a system bus, and a communications interface, where

the memory is configured to store a computer executable instruction, theprocessor is connected to the memory by using the system bus; and whenthe user plane gateway runs, the processor executes the computerexecutable instruction stored in the memory, so that the user planegateway performs the QoS guarantee method according to any one of thefifth aspect or the foregoing possible implementations of the fifthaspect of the present disclosure.

According to an eighth aspect of the embodiments of the presentdisclosure, a readable medium is provided, where the readable mediumincludes a computer executable instruction, and when a processor of auser plane gateway executes the computer executable instruction, theuser plane gateway performs the QoS guarantee method according to anyone of the fifth aspect or the foregoing possible implementations of thefifth aspect of the present disclosure.

It should be noted that, for a technical effect of the user planegateway provided in the sixth aspect or the seventh aspect of theembodiments of the present disclosure, reference may be made to atechnical effect of the QoS guarantee method according to any one of thefourth aspect or the foregoing possible implementations of the fourthaspect of the embodiments of the present disclosure, and details are notdescribed herein again.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

To describe the technical solutions in the embodiments of the presentdisclosure more clearly, the following briefly describes theaccompanying drawings required for describing the embodiments.

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a network architecture of a wirelesscommunications system according to an embodiment of the presentdisclosure;

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of a network architecture of anotherwireless communications system according to an embodiment of the presentdisclosure;

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of a network architecture of anotherwireless communications system according to an embodiment of the presentdisclosure;

FIG. 4 is a flowchart of a QoS guarantee method according to anembodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 5 is a flowchart of another QoS guarantee method according to anembodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 6 is a flowchart of another QoS guarantee method according to anembodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 7 is a flowchart of another QoS guarantee method according to anembodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 8 is a flowchart of another QoS guarantee method according to anembodiment of the present disclosure:

FIG. 9 is a schematic diagram of composition of a control plane gatewayaccording to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 10 is a schematic diagram of composition of another control planegateway according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 11 is a schematic diagram of composition of another control planegateway according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 12 is a schematic diagram of composition of a user plane gatewayaccording to an embodiment of the present disclosure; and

FIG. 13 is a schematic diagram of composition of another user planegateway according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS

The following clearly describes the technical solutions in theembodiments of the present disclosure with reference to the accompanyingdrawings in the embodiments of the present disclosure. Apparently, thedescribed embodiments are merely some but not all of the embodiments ofthe present disclosure. All other embodiments obtained by a person ofordinary skill in the art based on the embodiments of the presentdisclosure without creative efforts shall fall within the protectionscope of the present disclosure.

Various technologies in this specification may be applied to a wirelesscommunications system in a 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP)standard. As shown in FIG. 1, the wireless communications systemincludes a universal terrestrial radio access network (UTRAN) and aGSM/EDGE radio access network (GERAN). The UTRAN usually includes aplurality of radio network controllers (RNC) and a radio transmissionnode NodeB, configured to implement a radio access function in auniversal mobile terrestrial service (UMTS) network. The GERAN usuallyincludes a plurality of base stations and base station controllers(BSC), configured to implement a radio access function in a generalpacket radio service (GPRS) network.

As shown in FIG. 1, the wireless communications system further includesa serving general packet radio service support node (SGSN), a gatewaygeneral packet radio service support node (GGSN), and a home locationregister (HLR). The SGSN is configured to implement functions such asrouting and forwarding, mobility management, session management, anduser information storage in a GPRS/UMTS network. The GGSN is configuredto connect to an external PDN. The PDN may be the Internet, a virtualprivate network (VPN), an IP multimedia service (IMS) network, or aWireless Application Protocol (WAP) network provided by an operator. TheHLR is configured to store subscription information and authenticationdata of a user about a network service.

As shown in FIG. 2, the communications system applied to this embodimentof the present disclosure may further include an evolved universalterrestrial radio access network (E-UTRAN) and an EPC. Core networkdevices in the EPC mainly include a mobility management entity (MME), aserving gateway (S-GW), a packet data network gateway (P-GW), and a homesubscriber server (HSS). The E-UTRAN is configured to implement allfunctions related to a wireless access section of an evolved network.The MME is responsible for control plane mobility management, includinguser context management and mobile status management, allocating atemporary mobile subscriber identity (TMSI), and the like. The S-GW is auser plane anchor between 3GPP access networks, and terminates anE-TURAN interface. The P-GW is an interface between a user plane anchorand a PDN, where the interface is between a 3GPP access network and anon-3GPP access network. The HSS is configured to store subscriptioninformation of a user. The MME, the S-GW, the P-GW, and the HSS areusually used as network elements of the core network.

The S-GW, the P-GW, and the GGSN are basically the same in a platformarchitecture, and therefore are collectively referred to as a gateway.In this embodiment of the present disclosure, a control plane and a userplane of a gateway are separated. A gateway control plane entity (GW-C)may be referred to as a control plane gateway, or may be referred to asa gateway controller, a control node, or a control gateway. A gatewayuser plane entity (GW-U) may be referred to as a user plane gateway, ormay be referred to as a packet data forwarding gateway, a routing andforwarding node, or a switching node.

As shown in FIG. 3, FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of a networkarchitecture applied to a QoS guarantee method is applied according toan embodiment of the present disclosure. As shown in FIG. 3, the EPC mayinclude a control plane gateway (denoted as a GW-C) and at least twouser plane gateways (denoted as a GW-U). As shown in FIG. 3, in thisembodiment of the present disclosure, considering that both the controlplane gateway and the MME/SGSN use a universal computing platform, thecontrol plane gateway and the MMEISGSN may be co-located.

With reference to the accompanying drawings, the following describes indetail, based on specific embodiments and application scenarios of theembodiments, a QoS guarantee method and a gateway provided in theembodiments of the present disclosure.

Embodiment 1

An embodiment of the present disclosure provides a QoS guarantee method.An EPC includes a control plane gateway and at least two user planegateways. As shown in FIG. 4, the method includes the following steps.

S101. The control plane gateway obtains a QoS parameter.

For example, a method in which the control plane gateway obtains the QoSparameter may include: obtaining, by the control plane gateway, the QoSparameter according to access information and subscription informationthat are of user equipment; or performing, by the control gateway, deeppacket inspection (DPI) on a packet of the user equipment to obtain theQoS parameter.

The access information of the user equipment may include informationabout a current access network of the user equipment, for example, aradio access type (RAT) of the current access network. The RAT is usedto indicate that the current access network of the user equipment is a2G network, a 3G network, or a 4G network. The subscription informationof the user equipment is mainly QoS subscription information included inaccount subscription data of the user equipment, for example, a per APNaggregate maximum bit rate (APNAMBR) and a QoS class identifier (QCI).QoS subscription information may vary with a radio access type.

S102. The control plane gateway maps the QoS parameter to QoS guaranteeinformation.

A mapping relationship between the QoS parameter and the QoS guaranteeinformation is configured on the control plane gateway. The controlplane gateway may map the QoS parameter to the QoS guarantee informationaccording to the mapping relationship configured on the control planegateway.

In this embodiment of the present disclosure, the EPC includes a controlplane gateway and at least two user plane gateways. That is, in thisembodiment of the present disclosure, one control plane gateway maycontrol at least two user plane gateways. In this way, when the mappingrelationship between a QoS parameter and the QoS guarantee informationchanges, only a mapping relationship configured on one control planegateway needs to be updated. Compared with the prior art in whichmapping relationships configured on a plurality of control planegateways need to be separately updated, the updating method in thissolution is simpler and more convenient.

S103. The control plane gateway sends the QoS guarantee information to auser plane gateway.

S104. The user plane gateway receives the QoS guarantee information, andprovides QoS guarantee for user equipment according to the QoS guaranteeinformation.

For example, the QoS guarantee in this embodiment of the presentdisclosure may include bandwidth guarantee and QoS re-marking. Thebandwidth guarantee may be classified into session-level bandwidthguarantee, bearer-level bandwidth guarantee, and service-flow-levelbandwidth guarantee according to a service granularity. The QoSre-marking may be classified into bearer-level QoS re-marking andservice-flow-level QoS re-marking according to the service granularity.

It should be noted that the control plane gateway and the user planegateway in this embodiment of the present disclosure communicate witheach other by using an S18 interface.

According to the QoS guarantee method provided in this embodiment of thepresent disclosure, the control plane gateway may obtain the QoSparameter, and map the QoS parameter to the QoS guarantee informationthat is required by the user plane gateway to provide the QoS guaranteefor the user equipment; and then may instruct, by interacting with theuser plane gateway, the user plane gateway to provide the QoS guaranteefor the user equipment according to the QoS guarantee information. Thatis, corresponding QoS guarantee may be provided for the user equipmentby using this solution.

In addition, in this solution, the EPC includes a control plane gatewayand at least two user plane gateways. Therefore, when the mappingrelationship between the QoS parameter and the QoS guarantee informationchanges, only a mapping relationship configured on one control planegateway needs to be updated. This simplifies an updating process.

Further, in this embodiment of the present disclosure, the foregoingbandwidth guarantee may be implemented in an object-oriented manner.Specifically, the user plane gateway may separately create at least oneof a session object, a bearer object, or a service flow object accordingto a granularity of the bandwidth guarantee, and provide the QoSguarantee for the user equipment by using the session object, the bearerobject, or the service flow object.

Specifically, before S103, the method in this embodiment of the presentdisclosure may further include: sending, by the control plane gateway,an object creation request message to the user plane gateway, where theobject creation request message carries a user service context when theuser equipment accesses the EPC; and receiving, by the user planegateway, the object creation request message sent by the control planegateway, and creating at least one of the session object, the bearerobject, or the service flow object for the user equipment according tothe user service context carried in the object creation request message.Correspondingly. S104 may be specifically as follows: The user planegateway receives the QoS guarantee information, and provides, accordingto the QoS guarantee information, the QoS guarantee for the userequipment by using the session object, the bearer object, or the serviceflow object.

The user service context includes at least one of a session context, abearer context, or a service flow context. The object creation requestmessage is used to instruct the user plane gateway to create the atleast one of the session object, the bearer object, or the service flowobject for the user equipment according to the user service context. Thesession context, the bearer context, and the service flow context areassociated with each other. Specifically, one session context isassociated with one or more bearer contexts, or one session context isassociated with one or more service flow contexts; and one bearercontext is associated with one or more service flow contexts.

The object in this embodiment of the present disclosure is an abstractexpression of a type of entity that has a specific function andattribute. The object needs to be instantiated before being used, so asto endow the object with a corresponding attribute and a related actionto be performed. An attribute of the object is used to describe afeature of the object, and an action of the object is used to describe afunction of the object. In this embodiment of the present disclosure,the control plane gateway may designate an attribute and a specificaction of the object for the user plane gateway.

Any one of an IP address of the user equipment, a Media Access Control(MAC) address of the user equipment, or a Generic Routing Encapsulation(GRE) key may be used as an attribute of the session object. Both an IPaddress/MAC address of each user equipment and each GRE key may beuniquely corresponding to one session object. Both a tunnel endpointidentifier (TEID) and a traffic flow template (TFT) may be used asattributes of the bearer object. Both one group of TEIDs and one TFT maybe uniquely corresponding to one bearer object. An IP 5-tuple of apacket may be used as an attribute of the service flow object. Aspecific 5-tuple may be uniquely corresponding to one service flowobject.

The action of the object may include bandwidth guarantee and QoSre-marking. The bandwidth guarantee may include traffic policing ortraffic shaping. Specifically, for detailed description about thetraffic policing, the traffic shaping, and the QoS re-marking, refer tosubsequent description in this embodiment of the present disclosure, anddetails are not described herein again.

Certainly, the action of the object includes but is not limited to theforegoing actions. For example, the action of the object may furtherinclude QoS marking. For other details about the action of the object,refer to related description in the prior art, and details are notdescribed herein again.

In this solution, the control plane gateway may instruct, as requiredand based on a specific application and scenario, the user plane gatewayto configure a corresponding object. This may improve programmabilityand scalability of the user plane gateway. In addition, after the objectis instantiated, the object configured on the user plane gateway mayreceive, according to control performed by the control plane gateway onthe object, a specific packet belonging to the object, and processes thereceived packet according to action orchestration of the control planegateway.

Embodiment 2

An embodiment of the present disclosure provides a QoS guarantee method.An EPC includes a control plane gateway and at least two user planegateways. In this embodiment, that the QoS guarantee is specificallybandwidth guarantee, that is, the control plane gateway instructs theuser plane gateway to provide the bandwidth guarantee for user equipmentis used as an example to describe in detail the QoS guarantee methodprovided in this embodiment of the present disclosure.

In this embodiment, the QoS guarantee information is specifically abandwidth guarantee parameter. As shown in FIG. 5, the QoS guaranteemethod includes the following steps.

S201. The control plane gateway obtains a QoS parameter.

For example, the QoS parameter in this embodiment may include: a maximumbit rate (MBR), a guaranteed bit rate (GBR), and a per APN-AMBR.

The GBR is used to represent a minimum bit rate that is of a bear andthat is guaranteed by the system. Even when network resources are inshortage, a corresponding bit rate can be maintained. The MBR defines arate upper limit that a GBR bear can reach when sufficient resources areavailable. The APN-AMBR is used to represent a maximum aggregate bitrate of all non-GBR bearers in all PDN connections on an access point(APN). The non-GBR bearer is a bearer for which bandwidth guarantee isnot configured.

It should be noted that, for a method in which the control plane gatewayobtains the QoS parameter, refer to related description in Embodiment 1of the present disclosure, and details are not described again in thisembodiment.

S202. The control plane gateway maps the QoS parameter to a bandwidthguarantee parameter.

A method in which the control plane gateway maps the QoS parameter tothe bandwidth guarantee parameter may specifically include: mapping, bythe control plane gateway, the GBR to a CIR and a CBS, mapping theAPN-AMBR to a PIR and a PBS, and mapping the MBR to a rate and a queuedepth.

The bandwidth guarantee parameter in this embodiment of the presentdisclosure may include a traffic policing parameter or a traffic shapingparameter.

The traffic policing parameter is used to perform traffic policing (TP)on a rate of user traffic entering a network, to ensure a committedaccess rate (CAR), that is, the rate of the user traffic entering thenetwork is limited within an agreed range, so as to avoid networkcongestion.

For example, the traffic policing parameter may include a committedinformation rate (CIR), a committed burst size (CBS), a peak informationrate (PIR), and a peak burst size (PBS).

The traffic shaping parameter is used to perform traffic shaping (TS) ona rate of user traffic flowing out of the network, to adjust the rate ofthe user traffic flowing out of the network, so that the user traffic(include a packet) is sent at a relatively constant speed. The trafficshaping may usually be implemented by using a buffer and a token bucket.Specifically, when a sending speed of a packet is excessively high, thepacket is first buffered in a buffer, and then buffered packets are sentat a constant speed under control of the token bucket.

For example, the traffic shaping parameter may include a rate and aqueue depth. The rate is usually planned and provided by an operator,and is used to represent a maximum allowed rate of packet transmission.The queue depth is used to represent a maximum quantity of packets thatcan be buffered by each user equipment.

In this embodiment of the present disclosure, the bandwidth guaranteemay be classified into three levels according to a granularity of aservice flow; session-level bandwidth guarantee, bearer-level bandwidthguarantee, and service-flow-level bandwidth guarantee. At least onebearer converges in one session, and at least one service flow convergesin one bearer.

It should be noted that the control plane gateway may implement theforegoing mapping according to a mapping relationship configured on thecontrol plane gateway. A specific mapping method is not described againin this embodiment.

S203. The control plane gateway sends the bandwidth guarantee parameterto a user plane gateway.

S204. The user plane gateway receives the bandwidth guarantee parametersent by the control plane gateway, and provides bandwidth guarantee foruser equipment according to the bandwidth guarantee parameter.

It should be noted that in this embodiment of the present disclosure,for a method in which the user plane gateway provides bandwidthguarantee for user equipment according to the bandwidth guaranteeparameter, refer to a related prior-art method in which the user planegateway provides bandwidth guarantee for user equipment according to thebandwidth guarantee parameter, and details are not described again inthis embodiment of the present disclosure.

Preferably, to specify a range in which the user plane gateway performsthe foregoing bandwidth guarantee, that is, a packet on which the userplane gateway needs to perform the foregoing bandwidth guarantee, thebandwidth guarantee parameter may further include first featureinformation. The first feature information includes a feature of apacket on which the bandwidth guarantee is to be performed, and is usedto instruct the user plane gateway to perform the bandwidth guarantee ona packet including the feature.

For example, a specific manner in which the first feature information isused to instruct the user plane gateway to perform the bandwidthguarantee on a packet indicated by the feature in the first featureinformation may include the following cases:

If the first feature information includes an IP address of the userequipment, the first feature information may be used to instruct theuser plane gateway to perform the bandwidth guarantee on a packetincluding the IP address of the user equipment;

if the first feature information includes the IP address of the userequipment and a TEID, the first feature information may be used toinstruct the user plane gateway to perform the bandwidth guarantee on apacket including both the IP address of the user equipment and the TEID;

if the first feature information includes the IP address of the userequipment and a TFT, the first feature information may be used toinstruct the user plane gateway to perform the bandwidth guarantee on apacket including both the IP address of the user equipment and the TFT:

if the first feature information includes the TEID, the first featureinformation may be used to instruct the user plane gateway to performthe bandwidth guarantee on a packet including the TEID; and

if the first feature information includes an IP 5-tuple, the firstfeature information may be used to instruct the user plane gateway toperform the bandwidth guarantee on a packet including the IP 5-tuple.

Further, the first feature information in this embodiment of the presentdisclosure may be used to indicate a level of to-be-performed bandwidthguarantee, and the level of the to-be-performed bandwidth guaranteeincludes a session level, a bearer level, and a service flow level.

For example, a specific manner in which the first feature informationindicates the level of the to-be-performed bandwidth guarantee mayinclude the following cases:

If the first feature information includes the IP address of the userequipment, the first feature information may be used to instruct theuser plane gateway to perform the session-level bandwidth guarantee onthe packet including the IP address of the user equipment;

if the first feature information includes the IP address of the userequipment and the TEID, the first feature information may be used toinstruct the user plane gateway to perform the session-level bandwidthguarantee on the packet including both the IP address of the userequipment and the TEID:

if the first feature information includes the IP address of the userequipment and the TFT, the first feature information may be used toinstruct the user plane gateway to perform the session-level bandwidthguarantee on the packet including both the IP address of the userequipment and the TFT:

if the first feature information includes the TEID, the first featureinformation may be used to instruct the user plane gateway to performthe bearer-level bandwidth guarantee on the packet including the TEID;and

if the first feature information includes the IP 5-tuple, the firstfeature information is used to instruct the user plane gateway toperform the service-flow-level bandwidth guarantee on the packetincluding the IP 5-tuple.

Optionally, when bandwidth guarantee is the service-flow-level bandwidthguarantee, before S204, the method in this embodiment of the presentdisclosure may further include: sending, by the control plane gateway, aservice flow traffic threshold to the user plane gateway; receiving, bythe user plane gateway, the service flow traffic threshold sent by thecontrol plane gateway; monitoring, by the user plane gateway, whether anaccumulated traffic of the user equipment exceeds a first trafficthreshold; and if the accumulated traffic of the user equipment exceedsthe first traffic threshold, sending, by the user plane gateway, theaccumulated traffic of the user equipment to the control plane gateway,and indicating that locally accumulated traffic of the user equipmentexceeds the service flow traffic threshold. The control plane gatewaymay map the GBR to the CIR and the CBS according to the accumulatedtraffic of the user equipment.

For example, a method in which the control plane gateway maps the GBR tothe CIR and the CBS according to the accumulated traffic of the userequipment may include: when the GBR is mapped to the CIR and the CBS,increasing, by the control plane gateway, the CIR and the CBS accordingto a traffic value that is obtained by deducting a second trafficthreshold from the accumulated traffic of the user equipment. In thecontrol plane gateway, the foregoing traffic value and adjustmentgranularities of the CIR and the CBS, or a correspondence between theforegoing traffic value and adjustment granularities of the CIR and theCBS may be pre-configured. The second traffic threshold is less than thefirst traffic threshold.

Further, as shown in FIG. 6, after the user plane gateway provides theQoS guarantee (that is, S202) for the user equipment, the method in thisembodiment of the present disclosure may include S205 and S206.

S205. The user plane gateway sends a QoS response message to the controlplane gateway, where the QoS response message is used to indicate theuser plane gateway determines to provide the bandwidth guarantee for theuser equipment.

S206. The control plane gateway receives the QoS response message sentby the user plane gateway, and determines that the user plane gatewayhas started to provide the bandwidth guarantee for the user equipment.

It may be appreciated that after receiving the QoS response message sentby the user plane gateway, the control plane gateway may determine thatthe user plane gateway has started to provide the bandwidth guaranteefor the user equipment.

Further, a mapping relationship between a QoS parameter and QoSguarantee information may change, and therefore, the control planegateway needs to update a stored mapping relationship in time.Specifically, as shown in FIG. 7, the method in this embodiment of thepresent disclosure may further include S207.

S207. After a mapping relationship between a QoS parameter and thebandwidth guarantee parameter changes, the control plane gateway updatesthe mapping relationship.

In this solution, the EPC includes a control plane gateway and at leasttwo user plane gateways. Therefore, when the mapping relationshipbetween the QoS parameter and the bandwidth guarantee parameter changes,only a mapping relationship configured on one control plane gatewayneeds to be updated. Compared with the prior art in which mappingrelationships configured on a plurality of control plane gateways needto be separately updated, the updating method in this solution issimpler and more convenient.

Further, to ensure that the user plane gateway may provide the QoSguarantee for the user equipment according to an updated bandwidthguarantee parameter, the method in this embodiment of the presentdisclosure may include S208.

S208. The control plane gateway maps the QoS parameter to the updatedbandwidth guarantee parameter by using an updated mapping relationship.

Correspondingly, S203 may be replaced with S203′, and S204 may bereplaced with S204′.

S203′. The user plane gateway receives the bandwidth guarantee parametersent by the control plane gateway, and provides the bandwidth guaranteefor the user equipment according to the bandwidth guarantee parameter.

S204′. The user plane gateway provides the bandwidth guarantee for theuser equipment according to the updated bandwidth guarantee parameter.

Further, the user plane gateway may terminate providing the QoSguarantee for the user equipment according to an instruction of thecontrol plane gateway. Specifically, the method in this embodiment ofthe present disclosure may further include: sending, by the controlplane gateway, a QoS guarantee termination message to the user planegateway, where the QoS guarantee termination message is used to instructthe user plane gateway to terminate providing the bandwidth guaranteefor the user equipment.

In this solution, the control plane gateway may obtain the QoSparameter, and map the QoS parameter to the bandwidth guaranteeparameter that is required by the user plane gateway to provide thebandwidth guarantee for the user equipment; and then may instruct, byinteracting with the user plane gateway, the user plane gateway toperform bandwidth guarantee at different granularities for differentpackets according to the bandwidth guarantee parameter. That is,bandwidth guarantee at different granularities may be provided fordifferent user equipments by using this solution. In addition, anupdating process of a mapping relationship configured on the controlplane gateway may be simplified when a mapping relationship between theQoS parameter and the bandwidth guarantee parameter changes.

Optionally, in this embodiment of the present disclosure, the foregoingbandwidth guarantee may be implemented in an object-oriented manner. Fora specific method in which the control plane gateway instructs the userplane gateway to create an object (at least one of the session object,the bearer object, or the service flow object), refer to relateddescription in Embodiment 1 of the present disclosure, and details arenot described again in this embodiment.

In this embodiment, an action of the object is specifically thebandwidth guarantee (including traffic policing or traffic shaping). Thecontrol plane gateway may indicate, by using first feature informationand to the user plane gateway, an attribute of the object and agranularity of the bandwidth guarantee (action) to be performed by thecontrol plane gateway. For a specific manner in which the control planegateway indicates, by using the first feature information and to theuser plane gateway, the attribute of the object and the granularity ofthe bandwidth guarantee (action) to be performed by the control planegateway, refer to the foregoing related description in this embodiment,and details are not described herein again.

In this solution, the control plane gateway may instruct, as requiredand based on a specific application and scenario, the user plane gatewayto configure a corresponding object. This may improve programmabilityand scalability of the user plane gateway. In addition, after the objectis instantiated, the object configured on the user plane gateway mayreceive, according to control performed by the control plane gateway onthe object, a specific packet belonging to the object, and processes thereceived packet according to action orchestration of the control planegateway.

Embodiment 3

An embodiment of the present disclosure provides a QoS guarantee method.An EPC includes a control plane gateway and at least two user planegateways. In this embodiment, that the QoS guarantee is specifically QoSre-marking is used as an example to describe in detail the QoS guaranteemethod provided in this embodiment of the present disclosure.

In this embodiment, a QoS guarantee parameter is specifically adifferentiated services code point (DSCP) parameter. As shown in FIG. 8,the QoS guarantee method includes the following steps.

S301. A control plane gateway obtains a QoS parameter.

For example, the QoS parameter in this embodiment may include: anallocation/retention priority (ARP) and a QCI.

It should be noted that, for a method in which the control plane gatewayobtains the QoS parameter, refer to related description in Embodiment 1of the present disclosure, and details are not described again in thisembodiment.

S302. The control plane gateway maps the QoS parameter to a DSCPparameter.

It should be noted that, for a method in which the control plane gatewaymaps the QoS parameter to the DSCP parameter, refer to relateddescription in the prior art, and details are not described again inthis embodiment.

S303. The control plane gateway sends the DSCP parameter to a user planegateway.

S304. The user plane gateway receives the DSCP parameter sent by thecontrol plane gateway.

Specifically, in this embodiment, a method in which the user planegateway provides the QoS guarantee for user equipment may include S305.

S305. When forwarding uplink data or downlink data, the user planegateway modifies a DSCP field of an IP packet to the DSCP parameter.

Preferably, to specify a range in which the user plane gateway performsthe foregoing QoS guarantee (the QoS re-marking), that is, a packet onwhich the user plane gateway needs to perform the foregoing QoSre-marking, QoS guarantee information further includes second featureinformation, where the second feature information is used to indicate afeature of a packet on which the QoS re-marking is to be performed.

For example, a specific manner in which the second feature informationis used to instruct the user plane gateway to perform the QoS re-markingon a packet indicated by a feature included in the second featureinformation may include: if the second feature information includes aTEID, instructing the user plane gateway to perform the QoS re-markingon a packet including the TEID; or if the second feature informationincludes an IP 5-tuple, instructing the user plane gateway to performthe QoS re-marking on a packet including the IP 5-tuple.

Further, the second feature information may be used to indicate thatto-be-performed QoS re-marking is bearer-level QoS re-marking orservice-flow-level QoS re-marking.

For example, a specific manner in which the second feature informationindicates that to-be-performed QoS marking is the bearer-level QoSre-marking or the service-flow-level QoS re-marking may include: if thesecond feature information includes the TEID, instructing the user planegateway to perform the bearer-level QoS re-marking on the packetincluding the TEID; or if the second feature information includes the IP5-tuple, instructing the user plane gateway to perform theservice-flow-level QoS re-marking on the packet including the IP5-tuple.

Further, after the user plane gateway modifies the DSCP field of the IPpacket to the DSCP parameter (that is, S302) when forwarding the uplinkdata or downlink data, the method in this embodiment of the presentdisclosure may include the following step:

S306. The user plane gateway sends a QoS response message to the controlplane gateway, where the QoS response message is used to indicate thatthe user plane gateway determines to provide QoS re-marking for userequipment.

Optionally, in this embodiment of the present disclosure, anobject-oriented manner may be used to implement the foregoingbearer-level QoS re-marking. For a specific object creation method,refer to related description in Embodiment 1, and details are notdescribed again in this embodiment of the present disclosure.

Further, in this embodiment, the control plane gateway may also updatethe mapping relationship after the mapping relationship between the QoSparameter and the DSCP parameter changes.

In this solution, the EPC includes a control plane gateway and at leasttwo user plane gateways. Therefore, when the mapping relationshipbetween the QoS parameter and the DSCP parameter changes, only a mappingrelationship configured on one control plane gateway needs to beupdated. Compared with the prior art in which mapping relationshipsconfigured on a plurality of control plane gateways need to beseparately updated, the updating method in this solution is simpler andmore convenient.

Further, in this embodiment of the present disclosure, the QoS guaranteemay include bearer-level tunnel marking. When including the TEID, thesecond feature information may be used to instruct the user planegateway to perform the bearer-level tunnel marking on the packetincluding the TEID.

In this embodiment of the present disclosure, a specific method in whichthe user plane gateway provides the bearer-level tunnel marking for theuser equipment may include the following steps:

When an uplink packet leaves a GPRS tunneling protocol (GTP) tunnel, theuser plane gateway decapsulates the uplink packet to extract anouter-layer packet DSCP of the uplink packet, and writes the outer-layerpacket DSCP of the uplink packet into a packet header of an inner-layerpacket of the uplink packet;

when the uplink packet enters a tunnel on a PDN side, the user planegateway extracts an inner-layer packet DSCP of the uplink packet, andwrites the inner-layer packet DSCP of the uplink packet into a packetheader of an outer-layer packet of the uplink packet;

when a downlink packet leaves the tunnel on the PDN side, the user planegateway decapsulates the downlink packet to extract an outer-layerpacket DSCP of the downlink packet, and writes the outer-layer packetDSCP of the downlink packet into a packet header of an inner-layerpacket of the downlink packet; and

when the downlink packet enters the GTP tunnel, the user plane gatewayextracts an inner-layer packet DSCP of the downlink packet, and writesthe inner-layer packet DSCP of the downlink packet into a packet headerof the outer-layer packet of the downlink packet.

In this solution, the control plane gateway may obtain the QoSparameter, and map the QoS parameter to the DSCP parameter that isrequired by the user plane gateway to provide the QoS re-marking for theuser equipment; and then may instruct, by interacting with the userplane gateway, the user plane gateway to perform QoS re-marking atdifferent granularities for different packets according to the DSCPparameter. That is, QoS re-marking at different granularities may beprovided for different user equipments by using this solution. Inaddition, an updating process of a mapping relationship configured onthe control plane gateway may be simplified when a mapping relationshipbetween the QoS parameter and the DSCP parameter changes.

Optionally, in this embodiment of the present disclosure, anobject-oriented manner may be used to provide the QoS re-marking and thebearer-level tunnel marking for the user equipment.

It should be noted that a method for creating a session object, a bearerobject, and a service flow object in this embodiment is similar to themethod for creating a session object, a bearer object, and a serviceflow object in Embodiment 1, and details are not described again in thisembodiment.

Embodiment 4

An embodiment of the present disclosure provides a control plane gatewayincluded in an EPC, where the EPC further includes at least two userplane gateways. As shown in FIG. 9, the control plane gateway includesan obtaining unit 41, a mapping unit 42, and a sending unit 43.

The obtaining unit 41 is configured to obtain a quality of service QoSparameter.

The mapping unit 42 is configured to map the QoS parameter obtained bythe obtaining unit 41 to QoS guarantee information, where a mappingrelationship between the QoS parameter and the QoS guarantee informationis configured on the control plane gateway.

The sending unit 43 is configured to send the QoS guarantee informationobtained by means of mapping by the mapping unit 42 to the user planegateway, to instruct the user plane gateway to provide QoS guarantee forthe user equipment according to the QoS guarantee information.

Further, in a first application scenario of this embodiment of thepresent disclosure, the QoS guarantee includes bandwidth guarantee, andthe bandwidth guarantee includes session-level bandwidth guarantee,bearer-level bandwidth guarantee, and service-flow-level bandwidthguarantee.

Further, the QoS guarantee information includes a bandwidth guaranteeparameter.

The bandwidth guarantee parameter includes a traffic policing parameteror a traffic shaping parameter, the traffic policing parameter is usedto perform traffic policing on a rate of user traffic entering anetwork, and the traffic shaping parameter is used to perform trafficshaping on a rate of user traffic flowing out of the network.

The traffic policing parameter includes a committed information rateCIR, a committed burst size CBS, a peak information rate PIR, and a peakburst size PBS.

The traffic shaping parameter includes a rate and a queue depth, and thequeue depth is used to represent a maximum quantity of packets that canbe buffered by each user equipment.

Further, the QoS parameter includes a maximum bit rate MBR or aguaranteed bit rate GBR, and a per APN aggregate maximum bit rateAPN-AMBR.

The mapping unit 42 is specifically configured to:

map the GBR to the CIR and the CBS, and map the APN-AMBR to the PIR andthe PBS; or map the MBR to the rate and the queue depth.

Further, the bandwidth guarantee parameter includes first featureinformation, where the first feature information includes a feature of apacket on which the bandwidth guarantee is to be performed, and is usedto instruct the user plane gateway to perform the bandwidth guarantee ona packet including the feature.

With reference to a fourth possible implementation, for detaileddescription about the first feature information in a fifth possibleimplementation, refer to related description in a fifth possibleimplementation of a first aspect of the embodiments of the presentdisclosure, and details are not described again in this embodiment.

Further, the first feature information is used to instruct the userplane gateway to perform the session-level bandwidth guarantee, thebearer-level bandwidth guarantee, or the service-flow-level bandwidthguarantee.

It should be noted that, for a specific method in which the firstfeature information is used to instruct the user plane gateway toperform the session-level bandwidth guarantee, the bearer-levelbandwidth guarantee, or the service-flow-level bandwidth guarantee,refer to related description in the method embodiment of the presentdisclosure, and details are not described again in this embodiment.

Further, in a second application scenario of this embodiment of thepresent disclosure, the QoS guarantee includes QoS re-marking, and theQoS re-marking includes bearer-level QoS re-marking andservice-flow-level QoS re-marking.

Further, the QoS guarantee information includes a differentiatedservices code point DSCP parameter, and the QoS parameter includes anallocation/retention priority ARP and a QoS class identifier QCI.

Further, the QoS guarantee information further includes second featureinformation, where the second feature information includes a feature ofa packet on which the QoS re-marking is to be performed, and is used toinstruct the user plane gateway to perform the QoS re-marking on apacket including the feature.

It should be noted that, for detailed description about the secondfeature information, refer to related description in the methodembodiment of the present disclosure, and details are not describedagain in this embodiment.

Further, the second feature information is used to indicate thatto-be-performed QoS re-marking is the bearer-level QoS re-marking or theservice-flow-level QoS re-marking.

It should be noted that, for a specific method in which the secondfeature information is used to indicate that the to-be-performed QoSre-marking is the bearer-level QoS re-marking or the service-flow-levelQoS re-marking, refer to related description in the method embodiment ofthe present disclosure, and details are not described again in thisembodiment.

Further, in a third application scenario of this embodiment of thepresent disclosure, the QoS guarantee may include bearer-level tunnelmarking.

When the QoS guarantee is the bearer-level tunnel marking, the secondfeature information includes a TEID, and is used to instruct the userplane gateway to perform the bearer-level tunnel marking on a packetincluding the TEID.

Further, the obtaining unit 41 is specifically configured to:

obtain the QoS parameter according to access information andsubscription information of the user equipment;

or

perform deep packet inspection DPI on a packet of the user equipment toobtain the QoS parameter.

Further, the sending unit 43 is configured to, before sending the QoSguarantee information to the user plane gateway, to instruct the userplane gateway to provide the QoS guarantee for the user equipmentaccording to the QoS guarantee information, send an object creationrequest message to the user plane gateway, where the object creationrequest message carries a user service context when the user equipmentaccesses the EPC, and the user service context includes a sessioncontext, a bearer context, and a service flow context, to instruct theuser plane gateway to create at least one of a session object, a bearerobject, or a service flow object for the user equipment according to theuser service context.

One session context is associated with one or more bearer contexts, orone session context is associated with one or more service flowcontexts; and one bearer context is associated with one or more serviceflow contexts.

Further, as shown in FIG. 10, the control plane gateway may include anupdating unit 44.

The updating unit 44 is configured to: after a mapping relationshipbetween a QoS parameter and the QoS guarantee information changes,update the mapping relationship.

Further, the mapping unit 42 is configured to map the QoS parameter toupdated QoS guarantee information by using a mapping relationshipupdated by the updating unit 44.

The sending unit 43 is further configured to send the QoS guaranteeinformation updated by the updating unit 44 to the user plane gateway,to instruct the user plane gateway to provide QoS guarantee for the userequipment according to the updated QoS guarantee information.

Further, the sending unit 43 is configured to: after sending the QoSguarantee information to the user plane gateway, send a QoS guaranteetermination message to the user plane gateway, where the QoS guaranteetermination message is used to instruct the user plane gateway toterminate providing the QoS guarantee for the user equipment.

In this solution, the control plane gateway may obtain the QoSparameter, and map the QoS parameter to the QoS guarantee informationthat is required by the user plane gateway to provide the QoS guaranteefor the user equipment; and then may instruct, by interacting with theuser plane gateway, the user plane gateway to provide the QoS guaranteefor the user equipment according to the QoS guarantee information. Thatis, corresponding QoS guarantee may be provided for the user equipmentby using this solution. In addition, an updating process of a mappingrelationship configured on the control plane gateway may be simplifiedwhen a mapping relationship between the QoS parameter and the QoSguarantee information changes.

Embodiment 5

An embodiment of the present disclosure provides a control plane gatewayincluded in an EPC, where the EPC includes a control plane gateway andat least two user plane gateways. As shown in FIG. 11, the control planegateway includes a processor 51, a memory 52, a system bus 53, and acommunications interface 54.

The memory 52 is configured to store a computer executable instruction.The memory 52 is a computer storage medium of the control plane gateway.The computer storage medium may include a high-speed RAM memory, and mayfurther include a non-volatile memory, for example, at least onemagnetic disk memory. This embodiment of the present disclosure furtherprovides a readable medium including the foregoing computer executableinstruction.

The processor 51 may be a central processing unit (CCPU), or anapplication-specific integrated circuit (ASIC), or one or moreintegrated circuits configured to implement this embodiment of thepresent disclosure.

The processor 51 is connected to the memory 52 by using the system bus53. When the control plane gateway runs, the processor 51 executes thecomputer executable instruction stored in the memory 52, so that thecontrol plane gateway performs the QoS guarantee method described in theforegoing embodiment.

It should be noted that the processor 51 in this embodiment of thepresent disclosure may be an integration of function units (for example,the obtaining unit 41 and a guarantee unit 62) in the foregoingapparatus embodiment, that is, all the foregoing function units may beintegrated in the processor 51, and the processor 51 may be configuredto implement all functions of the foregoing function units.

The bus may be an industry standard architecture (ISA) bus, a PeripheralComponent Interconnect (PCI) bus, an extended industry standardarchitecture (EISA) bus, or the like. The bus may be classified into anaddress bus, a data bus, a control bus, and the like. For ease ofdenotation, the bus is represented by using only one thick line in FIG.11, but it does not indicate that there is only one bus or one type ofbus.

The communications interface 54 may be specifically a communicationsport integrating transmitting and receiving functions (for example, anantenna).

Further, this embodiment of the present disclosure provides a readablemedium including a computer executable instruction. When a processor ofthe control plane gateway executes the computer executable instruction,the control plane gateway performs the QoS guarantee method described inthis embodiment of the present disclosure.

It should be noted that, for detailed description about some functionmodules in the control plane gateway provided in this embodiment of thepresent disclosure, reference may be made to corresponding content inthe method embodiment, and details are not described again in thisembodiment.

In this solution, the control plane gateway may obtain the QoSparameter, and map the QoS parameter to the QoS guarantee informationthat is required by the user plane gateway to provide the QoS guaranteefor the user equipment; and then may instruct, by interacting with theuser plane gateway, the user plane gateway to provide the QoS guaranteefor the user equipment according to the QoS guarantee information. Thatis, corresponding QoS guarantee may be provided for the user equipmentby using this solution. In addition, an updating process of a mappingrelationship configured on the control plane gateway may be simplifiedwhen a mapping relationship between the QoS parameter and the QoSguarantee information changes.

Embodiment 6

An embodiment of the present disclosure provides a user plane gatewayincluded in an EPC, where the EPC includes a control plane gateway andat least two user plane gateways. As shown in FIG. 12, the user planegateway includes a receiving unit 61 and a guarantee unit 62.

The receiving unit 61 is configured to receive QoS guarantee informationsent by the control plane gateway.

The guarantee unit 62 is configured to provide QoS guarantee for theuser equipment according to the QoS guarantee information received bythe receiving unit.

In a first application scenario of this embodiment of the presentdisclosure, the QoS guarantee includes bandwidth guarantee, and thebandwidth guarantee includes session-level bandwidth guarantee,bearer-level bandwidth guarantee, and service-flow-level bandwidthguarantee.

In a second application scenario of this embodiment of the presentdisclosure, the QoS guarantee may include QoS re-marking, and the QoSre-marking includes bearer-level QoS re-marking and service-flow-levelQoS re-marking.

In a third application scenario of this embodiment of the presentdisclosure, the QoS guarantee may include bearer-level tunnel marking.

It should be noted that, for detailed description about the QoSguarantee information in this embodiment, refer to related descriptionin the method embodiment of the present disclosure, and details are notdescribed herein again.

Further, when the QoS guarantee is the QoS re-marking, the QoS guaranteeinformation is a DSCP parameter.

In this case, the guarantee unit 62 is specifically configured to: whenuplink data or downlink data is being forwarded, modify a DSCP field ofan IP packet to the DSCP parameter.

Further, when the QoS guarantee is the bearer-level tunnel marking, theguarantee unit 62 is specifically configured to:

when an uplink packet leaves a general packet radio service GPRStunneling protocol GTP tunnel, decapsulate the uplink packet to extractan outer-layer packet DSCP of the uplink packet, and write theouter-layer packet DSCP of the uplink packet into a packet header of aninner-layer packet of the uplink packet;

when the uplink packet enters a tunnel on a packet data network PDNside, extract an inner-layer packet DSCP of the uplink packet, and writethe inner-layer packet DSCP of the uplink packet into a packet header ofan outer-layer packet of the uplink packet:

when a downlink packet leaves the tunnel on the PDN side, decapsulatethe downlink packet to extract an outer-layer packet DSCP of thedownlink packet, and write the outer-layer packet DSCP of the downlinkpacket into a packet header of an inner-layer packet of the downlinkpacket; and

when the downlink packet enters the GTP tunnel, extract an inner-layerpacket DSCP of the downlink packet, and write the inner-layer packetDSCP of the downlink packet into a packet header of the outer-layerpacket of the downlink packet.

It should be noted that, for detailed description about some functionmodules in the user plane gateway provided in this embodiment of thepresent disclosure, reference may be made to corresponding content inthe method embodiment, and details are not described again in thisembodiment.

In this solution, the user plane gateway may provide the QoS guaranteefor the user equipment according to the QoS guarantee information sentby the control plane gateway. That is, corresponding QoS guarantee maybe provided for the user equipment by using this solution. In addition,an updating process of a mapping relationship configured on the controlplane gateway may be simplified when a mapping relationship between theQoS parameter and the QoS guarantee information changes.

Embodiment 7

An embodiment of the present disclosure provides a user plane gatewayincluded in an EPC, where the EPC includes a control plane gateway andat least two user plane gateways. As shown in FIG. 13, the control planegateway includes a processor 71, a memory 72, a system bus 73, and acommunications interface 74.

The memory 72 is configured to store a computer executable instruction.The memory 72 is a computer storage medium of the user plane gateway.The computer storage medium may include a high-speed RAM memory, and mayfurther include an NVM, for example, at least one magnetic disk memory.This embodiment of the present disclosure further provides a readablemedium including the foregoing computer executable instruction.

The processor 71 may be a CPU, or an ASIC, or one or more integratedcircuits configured to implement this embodiment of the presentdisclosure.

The processor 71 is connected to the memory 72 by using the system bus73. When the user plane gateway runs, the processor 71 executes thecomputer executable instruction stored in the memory 72, so that theuser plane gateway performs the QoS guarantee method described in theforegoing embodiment.

The communications interface 74 may be specifically a communicationsport integrating transmitting and receiving functions (for example, anantenna).

It should be noted that, for detailed description about some functionmodules in the user plane gateway provided in this embodiment of thepresent disclosure, reference may be made to corresponding content inthe method embodiment, and details are not described again in thisembodiment.

Further, this embodiment of the present disclosure provides a readablemedium including a computer executable instruction. When a processor ofthe user plane gateway executes the computer executable instruction, theuser plane gateway performs the QoS guarantee method described in thisembodiment of the present disclosure.

It should be noted that, for detailed description about some functionmodules in the user plane gateway provided in this embodiment of thepresent disclosure, reference may be made to corresponding content inthe method embodiment, and details are not described again in thisembodiment.

In this solution, the user plane gateway may provide the QoS guaranteefor the user equipment according to the QoS guarantee information sentby the control plane gateway. That is, corresponding QoS guarantee maybe provided for the user equipment by using this solution. In addition,an updating process of a mapping relationship configured on the controlplane gateway may be simplified when a mapping relationship between theQoS parameter and the QoS guarantee information changes.

The foregoing descriptions about implementations allow a person skilledin the art to understand that, for the purpose of convenient and briefdescription, division of the foregoing function modules is used as anexample for illustration. In actual application, the foregoing functionscan be allocated to different modules and implemented according to arequirement, that is, an inner structure of an apparatus is divided intodifferent function modules to implement all or some of the functionsdescribed above. For a detailed working process of the foregoing system,apparatus, and unit, refer to a corresponding process in the foregoingmethod embodiments, and details are not described herein again.

In the multiple embodiments provided in this application, it should beunderstood that the disclosed system, apparatus, and method may beimplemented in other manners. For example, the described apparatusembodiment is merely an example. For example, the module or unitdivision is merely logical function division and may be other divisionin actual implementation. For example, a plurality of units orcomponents may be combined or integrated into another system, or somefeatures may be ignored or not performed. In addition, the displayed ordiscussed mutual couplings or direct couplings or communicationconnections may be implemented by using some interfaces. The indirectcouplings or communication connections between the apparatuses or unitsmay be implemented in electronic, mechanical, or other forms.

The units described as separate parts may or may not be physicallyseparate, and parts displayed as units may or may not be physical units,may be located in one position, or may be distributed on a plurality ofnetwork units. Some or all of the units may be selected according toactual requirements to achieve the objectives of the solutions of theembodiments.

In addition, function units in the embodiments of the present disclosuremay be integrated into one processing unit, or each of the units mayexist alone physically, or two or more units are integrated into oneunit. The integrated unit may be implemented in a form of hardware, ormay be implemented in a form of a software function unit.

When the integrated unit is implemented in the form of a softwarefunction unit and sold or used as an independent product, the integratedunit may be stored in a computer-readable storage medium. Based on suchan understanding, the technical solutions of the present disclosureessentially, or the part contributing to the prior art, or all or someof the technical solutions may be implemented in the form of a softwareproduct. The software product is stored in a storage medium and includesseveral instructions for instructing a computer device (which may be apersonal computer, a server, or a network device) or a processor toperform all or some of the steps of the methods described in theembodiments of the present disclosure. The foregoing storage mediumincludes: any medium that can store program code, such as a USB flashdrive, a removable hard disk, a read-only memory (ROM), a random accessmemory (RAM), a magnetic disk, or an optical disc.

The foregoing descriptions are merely specific implementations of thepresent disclosure, but are not intended to limit the protection scopeof the present disclosure. Any variation or replacement readily figuredout by a person skilled in the art within the technical scope disclosedin the present disclosure shall fall within the protection scope of thepresent disclosure. Therefore, the protection scope of the presentdisclosure shall be subject to the protection scope of the claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A quality of service (QoS) guarantee method,comprising: obtaining, by a control plane gateway, a QoS parameter;mapping, by the control plane gateway, the QoS parameter to QoSguarantee information; sending, by the control plane gateway, the QoSguarantee information to a user plane gateway; and performing, by theuser plane gateway and according to the QoS guarantee information, QoSguarantee at a granularity of a bearer or at a granularity of a serviceflow.
 2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the QoS parametercomprises a guaranteed bit rate of a service flow, the QoS guaranteeinformation being bandwidth guarantee information, and whereinperforming the QoS guarantee comprises: performing, by the user planegateway, bandwidth guarantee at a granularity of a bearer or at agranularity of a service flow according to the bandwidth guaranteeinformation.
 3. The method according to claim 2, wherein the QoSparameter further comprises a maximum bit rate of the service flow. 4.The method according to claim 2, wherein the QoS parameter furthercomprises a differentiated services code point parameter of the serviceflow.
 5. The method according to claim 2, wherein the QoS parameterfurther comprises a per access point aggregate maximum bit rate.
 6. Themethod according to claim 1, wherein the QoS parameter comprises anallocation/retention priority and a QoS class identifier, the QoSguarantee information being a differentiated services code pointparameter, and wherein performing the QoS guarantee comprises:performing, by the user plane gateway, QoS marking at a granularity of abearer or at a granularity of a service flow according to thedifferentiated services code point parameter.
 7. The method according toclaim 1, wherein the QoS guarantee information is further for QoSguarantee at a granularity of a session.
 8. The method according toclaim 1, wherein the QoS guarantee information comprises featureinformation indicating a feature of a packet on which the QoS guaranteeis to be performed.
 9. The method according to claim 8, wherein thefeature information further indicates that the QoS guarantee isbearer-level or service-flow-level.
 10. The method according to claim 8,wherein the feature information comprises a tunnel endpoint identifier,and wherein performing the QoS guarantee comprises: performing, by theuser plane gateway, bearer-level QoS guarantee on a packet comprisingthe tunnel endpoint identifier; or wherein the feature informationcomprises an IP 5-tuple, and wherein performing the QoS guaranteecomprises: performing, by the user plane gateway, service-flow-level QoSguarantee on a packet comprising the IP 5-tuple.
 11. A quality ofservice (QoS) guarantee system, comprising: a control plane gateway,configured to: obtain a QoS parameter; map the QoS parameter to QoSguarantee information; and send the QoS guarantee information; and auser plane gateway, configured to: receive the QoS guarantee informationfrom the control plane gateway; and perform, according to the QoSguarantee information, QoS guarantee at a granularity of a bearer or ata granularity of a service flow.
 12. The system according to claim 11,wherein the QoS parameter comprises a guaranteed bit rate of a serviceflow, the QoS guarantee information being bandwidth guaranteeinformation, wherein the user plane gateway is configured to performbandwidth guarantee at a granularity of a bearer or at a granularity ofa service flow according to the bandwidth guarantee information.
 13. Thesystem according to claim 11, wherein the QoS parameter comprises anallocation/retention priority and a QoS class identifier, the QoSguarantee information being a differentiated services code pointparameter, wherein the user plane gateway is configured to perform QoSmarking at a granularity of a bearer or at a granularity of a serviceflow according to the differentiated services code point parameter. 14.The system according to claim 11, wherein the user plane gateway isfurther configured to perform QoS guarantee at a granularity of asession.
 15. The system according to claim 11, wherein the QoS guaranteeinformation comprises feature information indicating a feature of apacket on which the QoS guarantee is to be performed.
 16. The systemaccording to claim 15, wherein the feature information comprises atunnel endpoint identifier, the user plane gateway is configured toperform bearer-level QoS guarantee on a packet comprising the tunnelendpoint identifier; or wherein the feature information comprises an IP5-tuple, the user plane gateway is configured to performservice-flow-level QoS guarantee on a packet comprising the IP 5-tuple.17. An apparatus, comprising: at least one processor, configured to:obtain a QoS parameter; and map the QoS parameter to QoS guaranteeinformation; and a transmitter, configured to send the QoS guaranteeinformation to a user plane gateway, wherein the QoS guaranteeinformation is for QoS guarantee at a granularity of a bearer or at agranularity of a service flow.
 18. The apparatus according to claim 17,wherein the QoS parameter comprises a guaranteed bit rate of a serviceflow, the QoS guarantee information being bandwidth guaranteeinformation, wherein the QoS guarantee information is for bandwidthguarantee at a granularity of a bearer or at a granularity of a serviceflow.
 19. The apparatus according to claim 17, wherein the QoS parametercomprises an allocation/retention priority and a QoS class identifier,the QoS guarantee information being a differentiated services code pointparameter, the differentiated services code point parameter is for QoSmarking at a granularity of a bearer or at a granularity of a serviceflow.
 20. The apparatus according to claim 17, wherein the QoS guaranteeinformation comprises feature information indicating a feature of apacket on which the QoS guarantee is to be performed.